Leena Nair, the 52-year-old Global CEO of the French Fashion giant Chanel has now been chosen to join the ever-increasing list of Indian-origin corporates and executives who are heading the world’s biggest multinational companies. Nair has joined as the new boss of the iconic brand that was founded by Coco Chanel.
Until now she has remained the Chief HR Officer at Unilever. Nair was the first Asian, first female, and the youngest ever CHRO, to take over one of the biggest British FMCG Giants. She will be taking over Chanel in January 2022.
Let’s know more about Leena Nair
Leena Nair hails from the Kolhapur district of Maharashtra. She got her early education at the Holy Cross convent school which is near her hometown; before she went to pursue electronics engineering from a popular college in Sangli known as Walchand College of Engineering. She then went ahead to pursue management from XLRI Jamshedpur where she successfully graduated as a gold medalist.
She began her career as a Management Trainee with Hindustan Unilever Limited back in 1992. There she started working in three different factories where she was the personnel manager at Lipton India factory. Slowly, she grew through the ranks and became the Senior Vice President, HR of Unilever in 2013. She then also became the company’s Head of Diversity.
In 2016, she join the Unilever leadership executive in London. As per one of a former Unilever colleague, Nair was a pioneer throughout her years at Unilever. She has been a driving force when it comes to diversity and inclusion at the workplace, equity, and transformation of leadership development. She has played a vital role in building a future-fit organization that is now the employer giant in over 50 countries worldwide.
